A Hero for WondLa

by Tony DiTerlizzi

  “My Omnipod? Do I really need it?” Eva picked at her nails.

  “Yup,” said Hailey as he continued climbing. “It holds all of your Sanctuary records. It’s the only way you can be admitted as a citizen of New Attica.”

  Eva followed Hailey up the ladder. She felt like she was climbing, ascending, toward some answers from her mysterious rescuer. “New Attica? Is that the name of the human city? Is it far? What planet is it on? How long will the flight take? What will we do when we get there?”

  “Boy, you sure do talk a lot for a reboot. I guess it’s ’cause you don’t know much about stuff,” Hailey said with a laugh as he entered the main deck of the ship.

  Somehow the tone of those words stung Eva. “Reboot? What’s a reboot?”

  “You are,” Hailey replied in a matter-of-fact tone as he sat down in a floating hovchair in the galley.

  Eva joined him at the small table and studied Hailey as he devoured another piece of fruit. He was somewhat slovenly when he ate, just like Rovender. Muthr would disapprove of his upbringing, Eva thought.

  He continued through a mouth full of food, “You’re Sanctuary-born, right?”

  Eva answered with a nod of the head, then tried to appear uninterested. She looked away from Hailey and glanced around the galley. An array of dispensers lined the low walls, each with their synthetic contents labeled: nutriment pellets, Susti-Bars, Pow-R-drink packets, and flavored hydration tablets.

  Hailey finished the fruit and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “So, then, you’re a reboot.”

  Eva was quiet. The way he said “reboot” bothered her, but she would not let it affect her.

  “And I am a retriever,” Hailey continued proudly. “With this ship I track down newly emerged humans and take them to the great city of New Attica, ‘Where a bright and beautiful new future awaits.’ It’s a ways out west, but the flight won’t take too long.”

  “How did you track me? With my Omnipod?” Eva asked. She felt ignorant, like Hailey knew everything and she knew nothing.

  “No.” Hailey got up and approached her. “There’s a tracking chip inside of you.”

  “Inside . . . me?” Eva replied. “I don’t think so. Muthr never told me about a—”

  “No, it’s true,” said Hailey. Very gently he ran his finger up the nape of Eva’s neck. “The chip is . . . right . . . here.” He stopped at the little raised mole on the back of her neck.

  “Heart rate BPM acceleration detected, Eva Nine,” the shoulder patch on Eva’s tunic announced. “Please—” Eva swatted the patch, abruptly shutting it off. Pretending she didn’t hear it, she stepped away from Hailey and entered the cockpit. “Wow,” she said. “This is where you pilot your ship?”

  Behind a large domed windshield a single chair sat at an arcing dashboard. Gathered clusters of thin multicolored wires hung out from underneath the dash like the roots of an overturned tree. On the floor of the cockpit Hailey’s Omnipod displayed a floating hologram of the Bijou, labeled as an HRP Compact Transcarrier.

  “Yeah, this is where I operate the ship.” Hailey leaned against the doorway. “And I can tell you, there is no feeling like it.”

  Eva spun a tracking ball set in the dash. “Is it easy to fly?”

  “No,” answered Hailey, gently brushing Eva’s hand away from the dash. “It may look simple, but it takes a long time to master. The controls are very delicate.”

  Eva picked up the Omnipod and examined the hologram. The wiring diagram of the ship pulsed like an electronic nervous system. “Is everything okay with the Bijou?” she asked.

  Hailey took the Omnipod from her. “Yes, of course. I am just doing some . . . refining.” He guided Eva back to the access ladder leading down to the cargo hold. “So, if you and your blue friend want to relax here in the ship, I’ll give you an update later today on our departure time. Just don’t forget your Omnipod.”

  Eva turned back. “About that . . . You see, my Omnipod . . . It is, um . . . gone.”

  Hailey raised an eyebrow. “Gone?”

  “Well . . . yeah.” Eva felt oddly nervous explaining this to him. It was like she hadn’t followed some set of unspoken rules. There was nothing about losing your Omnipod on her survival tests. Though, now that she thought about it, the device did seem integral to all the exercises. She wished Muthr were here to explain things. “You see, Rovee—that’s the blue guy—and me and my Muthr were being followed—hunted, actually—by this big hairy monster, Besteel.”

  Hailey crossed his arms. A slight grin drew across his stubbly face. “Go on.”

  “Well . . .” Eva didn’t want to talk about this. It was too soon. Too real. She wanted to change the subject. She wanted to leave.

  “Hello?” Rovender’s voice echoed up from the hold down below. “Eva Nine?”

  “I’m . . . I’m here,” she called down to him. “I’ll be down in a second.” Eva looked back at Hailey. His shaggy bangs concealed one of his deep umber eyes. She felt nervous and giddy. “I don’t have my Omnipod anymore,” she said. “I used it to kill Besteel.”

  “Kill him?” the pilot said with a smile. “What, did you throw it at his head?”

  Eva’s eyes narrowed. “No. I used it to lure up a sand-sniper, which ate him.” There was venom in her voice.

  “Okay, reboot. Whatever you say.” Hailey dismissed Eva and opened up a supply cabinet in the main deck.

  “It’s the truth! My Omnipod is lost out in the desert somewhere!” said Eva.

  “Well, you better go ask that sand-sniper to give it back to you, because you’ll need it to get into the city.”

  Rovender called up from the bottom of the ladder, “Eva, is everything all right?”

  “I said I’m fine!” yelled Eva. “What about Rovee? He doesn’t have an Omnipod. He’s never had an Omnipod.”

  “Humans need their Omnipods to register in the city.” Hailey continued rifling through the supply cabinet. “I don’t make the rules. I just bring you in.”

  “Thanks a lot,” grumbled Eva, and she began to climb down.

  “Hey.” Hailey stopped her. “Hold on.” He handed her a tarnished old Omnipod. “It’s an older model that I hacked, and it barely works, but it might help you find yours.”

  Eva snatched the Omnipod from him and continued down the ladder.

  By the time she crossed the cargo hold, the loud music had resumed. Eva stormed down the ramp and out from under the Bijou, with Rovender following close behind.

  “Is there something wrong?” Rovender asked.

  “I just want to get out of here.”

  CHAPTER 2: MOTHER

  On the walk back to the campsite, Rovender listened while Eva explained her dilemma.

  “So the pilot, Hailey, tells you that you must retrieve your Omnipod in order for you to gain entrance to the human village, New Attica?” he asked.

  “Yeah, pretty much.” Eva pouted and kicked rocks out of her way.

  “And what is your impression of this other human?” said Rovender as they walked under the broken arch at the entrance of their camp.

  Eva gave pause, mostly because she wasn’t sure what her impression was just yet. “He’s okay, I guess. . . . I don’t know,” she said, twisting a bead on one of her braids. “I mean, he’s here to rescue us and take us to the city, right? But he’s also telling me I have to go find my Omnipod buried out there in a sniper-infested desert. Why can’t we just leave without it?” She exhaled hotly.

  Rovender stopped and lifted Eva’s chin. With indigo eyes he studied her. “Eva, I recognize your confusion. It is not always easy to understand another’s spirit, especially if you do not know where to look.”

  “He looks like a nice guy,” Eva said. “Well, except that he is a bit dirty.”

  “No, no, no. That is not what I mean,” Rovender said. “When we first met, I certainly did not know what to make of you. And likely you felt the same about me, correct?”

  “You yelled at me and snatched away my Omnipod.�
�

  Rovender grinned. “I admit, I thought the device to be some form of weapon.”

  “And you kept telling me how you needed to go and how I was on my own,” said Eva. Her voice became more thoughtful with recollection. “But then you stayed. You helped me. You helped Muthr. I couldn’t have survived out here if it weren’t for you.”

  “So, Eva Nine, you must sometimes disregard what one is saying and focus instead on what they are doing. Watch and observe. That is when one reveals his true self. Do you understand?”

  Eva nodded.

  “This Hailey knows the rules of your people. He tells you that he is trying to make it easy for you to become one with the human village.” Rovender continued walking.

  “So I just do what he says, then?” Eva asked.

  “If your desire is to gain access to this New Attica, then we must trust him until his actions prove otherwise,” Rovender said.

  Yes. Maybe he’s just eager to leave too, Eva thought, her mind somewhat at ease. He was awfully busy fixing his ship. She sat on the wing of Besteel’s parked glider and began twirling one of her thin braids around her finger. “But how are we going to find my Omnipod? You saw what happened out there.”

  “I understand. All of this makes you upset,” said Rovender.

  “I just don’t want to go back to that . . . place.” Eva said. Thoughts of Muthr and Besteel’s attack bombarded her all at once. “It’s too much. I can’t.” The braid was wound so tight that her fingertip was red.

  Rovender brushed away Eva’s bangs. “Have you told Hailey what happened to your Omnipod?”

  Eva lied. “No. I didn’t want to trouble him. He seemed busy working on his ship.” She wished that Hailey had not said the things he’d said. She wanted him to not think of her as some helpless “reboot.” She wanted to slap her Omnipod into his hand and prove to him how strong, smart, and resourceful she was. But that wasn’t going to happen. Her Omnipod was down in the gut of some monstrous sand-sniper.

  “You wait here, okay?” Rovender grabbed his walking stick and donned his wide-brimmed hat.

  “No, Rovee.” Eva let go of her braid. “Don’t go. It’s too dangerous. You saw the size of that sand-sniper. It’s not worth it.”

  “It is worth it to you, so it is worth it to me,” Rovender said, grabbing his bottle of water. “We have until sundown, correct? I will go take a look around and see what clues may be found.”

  “And if you come across a sniper?”

  “I shall be protected.” Rovender pulled out from the glider’s saddlebag a holster holding a large sonic pistol. He tucked the weapon snug into his belt. “Now you wait here and get some rest.”

  Eva handed Rovender his saggy rucksack. “No way are you going out there alone. I’m coming with you.”

  “Very well. At least this way I can keep an eye on you.”

  Eva strapped her satchel on, her mind turning over what Rovender had said earlier. “Rovee?”

  “Yes, Eva Nine?”

  “Why did you decide to help me? I mean, how did you know the difference between what I was saying and what I was doing?” asked Eva.

  Rovender knelt down in front of her. “Despite what we see and hear, there is a voice that will always be truthful to you,” he replied. Rovender spread an open palm over Eva’s heart. “If you listen from here, you will never be misled.”

  The glaring noonday sun baked the sand-worn remains of the ancient city. Rovender and Eva found themselves on the outskirts of the ruins facing endless dunes that stretched out in every direction. The hot breath of gusty wind whipped at Eva, covering her feet in loose granules of ashen sand. Not even the climatefiber in her utilitunic could keep her body cool.

  “There is no way on Orbona that we are going to find this thing,” Eva said, rubbing the sand from her eyes.

  “Be patient.” Rovender placed his hat on Eva’s head and climbed up onto a large piece of eroded rubble. He peered through his spyglass. “Perhaps luck may pay us a visit.”

  Eva stared out into the wasteland. It was like a sea of sand. And, just like the great lake near Lacus, the surface undulated and rolled with the blowing wind.

  “Hmmm.” Rovender continued to scan the horizon. “I was hoping for some kind of tracks from Otto’s herd or a sinkhole from the sniper. But all is gone. Buried.”

  Eva wiped the sweat from her forehead and sipped her water. She sat on the rubble where Rovender was perched and suddenly recognized its shape and form. He was standing on the rusted carriage of a half-buried hovercraft. It was similar to the old golden hovercraft Eva had piloted over these wastelands. A thought came to her. “Rovee, look for the Goldfish.”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Rovender sang as he scanned the horizon. “Your hover-machine. That is a good idea, Eva Nine. A very good idea. . . . Aha!” He pointed out into the distance. “I see it! The Goldfish is this way.”

  The two trudged along in the blistering heat at the edge of the ruins, careful to avoid the open sandy dunes where snipers preyed just below the surface. As Rovender and Eva moved closer to the wreck of the Goldfish, Eva felt weird, like she was rewinding a program—a program she wasn’t ready to revisit just yet.

  “Oeeah! What have we here?” Rovender knelt down to examine something.

  “Is it my Omnipod?” Eva rushed up to him.

  “I do not think so.”

  Lying before them was a gooey sand-speckled blob about the size of Eva. Strange flies and unusual insects buzzed around it as they lapped up the milky goo that oozed from the cracks of the blob’s dried skin. Rovender jabbed the viscous mass with his walking stick. The end of his stick caught on something inside the blob, and he tugged on it. From the mass came a coiled wire, which Rovender seized with his hand and began to pull out.

  “What is that?” Eva winced. Now that Rovender was digging around in the goo, a nauseating stench drifted up amidst the swarm of flies.

  “I believe it is a clue,” he replied as he yanked on the coiled wire. Finally, from deep within, he pulled out a familiar artifact.

  “That’s Besteel’s boomrod!” Eva said in shock.

  “Indeed it is.” Rovender dropped the huntsman’s weapon back into the mass. “It is as I suspected. Sand-snipers cannot digest metal or other similar materials. Do you remember the one near your old home that spit out my bottle?”

  “I do.” Eva flinched. “So, is my Omnipod in that?”

  “Perhaps.” Rovender wiped his hands on his tattered jacket. “But we’ll have to dig through this spittle to know for sure.”

  The disgusting stink wafted back up, whirling around Eva.

  “I’m not digging in that.” She wagged her finger at the blob. “I’ll puke.”

  “But, Eva Nine, your device may lie in there,” Rovender countered.

  Eva brightened and pulled out from her satchel the old Omnipod that Hailey had given her. “Hold on. Perhaps Hailey’s old one can tell us for sure if it’s in there.”

  “A good idea,” Rovender said, and dribbled water over his hands to cleanse them.

  Eva activated the old Omnipod, and the lights flickered for several long moments before it finally came on.

  “Greetings, Van Turner,” the Omnipod said through a static-filled hiss. Eva and Rovender exchanged glances. The device continued, “How may I be of service?”

  “Can you locate the whereabouts of another Omnipod?” Eva asked.

  “Initiating Techscan,” the device replied. A flickering radar map projected over its central eye. “There is a faint signal approximately ninety meters to the northeast,” it reported. “It carries a trace signal similar to an Omnipod. However, it is too far away to tell for sure at your current coordinates. Please rescan when you are in closer proximity.”

  “What about in this glop right here?” Eva pointed the Omnipod’s eye at the mass that held Besteel’s boomrod.

  The Omnipod was silent for some time. At last it said, “There is Tech here that I cannot identify. It does not carry the sig
nal of an Omnipod.” Eva put the old device away and looked at Rovender.

  “Let us continue,” he said, and set out over the dunes in the direction the old Omnipod had instructed.

  As the debris of the ruins became sparser, Eva spotted something glimmering in the sun. The duo ventured toward a golden fin rising out of the sand like a hologram of a swimming shark.

  It was the rudder of the Goldfish.

  “We can go no farther until we find out if there are any snipers present,” said Rovender. He began thumping the ground around the wreck with his walking stick. “This vibration will attract them if any are present, but you may also want to use that Omnipod as well.”

  Eva crumpled down to the blazing ground next to the golden fin and clutched handfuls of hot sand. In one night the entire hovercraft had been almost completely buried in sand, save for the lone tail rudder. However, the events—Muthr’s intercepting Besteel’s lethal shot—were still fresh in Eva’s memory.

  Rovender knelt down next to Eva and put his arm around her. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah.” She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I just want to get out of here.” She took out the old Omnipod and commanded, “Initiate LifeScan, please.”

  The hissy voice of the old Omnipod replied, “Life Scan is inoperative at this moment. Aspects of the program’s database appear corrupted. Please hold while I attempt program analysis and repair.”

  “Great! That’s just great!” Frustrated, Eva threw the old Omnipod back into her satchel. “Doesn’t anything work?”

  “Patience, Eva Nine,” Rovender said, leaning on his stick.

  “I’m tired of being patient! I’m tired of waiting!” Now furious, she stomped around the wreckage as the sweltering heat hammered down. It felt as if the sandy ocean itself had been brought to a boil.

  “Eva,” Rovender called out to her.

  She ignored him and continued yelling. “It’s all everybody ever tells me. ‘Wait for this!’ ‘Be patient for that!’”

  “Eva!” Rovender called out again.